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U.S. Funding Cut Reignites Debate on Palestinian Refugee Agency

(New York Times) David M. Halbfinger - The U.S. announced this week that it was withholding $65 million from a scheduled payment to UNRWA. Unlike the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNRWA allows refugee status to be passed down for generations. UNRWA also does not remove people from its list who have acquired citizenship in a new country, so their number always increases. Hence, the Palestinian refugee population has grown from 700,000 to more than 5.2 million. "At the rate we're going now, it's going to be 15 million soon," said Asaf Romirowsky, executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, who has called for disbanding the agency and turning over its functions to other institutions, like the Palestinian Authority. He said that freezing the agency's money could be a good step if it forced the Palestinians to the negotiating table.
2018-01-18 00:00:00
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